Tiger Collars
by katklaws
Summary: Manny wakes up with a strange collar around his neck that makes him more powerful than ever. Who put it there, and what's the catch? And when everything goes wrong, can he survive to the end of this challenge? The lives of his friends hang in the balance.
1. Nightmares

**SHAMELESS PROMO: fadedflight. SPACE deviantart SPACE .com/art/Tiger-Collars-119080278 (but remove the ' SPACE 's first! ;3)**

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**Tiger Collars**

Prologue: Nightmares

"Manuel… "

Rolling over, Manny mumbled and drifted back to sleep.

"Manuel… "

Manny opened his eyes into the darkness of his room. A shiver of recognized danger roused him, rippling over the back of his neck. Someone was watching him.

Again, the ethereal voice snaked to him. "Manuel… "

Under a flash of green light, Many burst from the covers, sleep long forgotten. An enemy had approached him on his home grounds while he was asleep- a dirty fighter. He crouched on the bed, green eyes piercing the dark easily.

A shadow shifted at the window and Manny leapt, roaring, but it slipped out before he could grab it. It vanished against the night, seeming to join the shadows. Manny stood at the window and stared after it. His claws itched irritatingly to show it the treatment shifty intruders got.

"Manny? Are you all right? What happened?"

Manny turned around, his face still a mask of resentful disappointment at his own inability, and his father recoiled. At that, Manny instantly relaxed and he was flushed with shame.

"Uh, hey Dad. It was nothin', just some-"

"Manny, what is around your neck?" Rodolfo knelt and felt the object, his eyes going from round with shock to sharp with protective suspicion. Manny became aware of it then and realized the shadow must have put it there while he was sleeping. "Ah, turn the light on. I can not see… "

Manny flashed to his lamp, turned it on and came back in a split second, and Rodolfo's eyes widened. "What is this? A collar?"

"What?" Manny exclaimed, pulling at it. "Get it off."

Rodolfo brushed his son's hands away and rotated the brown leather length. It didn't have a clasp, yet it was fitted securely to Manny's skin. "That is not… possible," Rodolfo said to himself, pulling on it and finding absolutely no elasticity.

"What? What's not possible?" Manny said, alarmed. The fact that someone had slipped into his room and come in contact with him set off a certain instinctual fear, spurred by suddenly wondering if he was as capable as he thought.

"There is no clasp, yet it can not stretch." Rodolfo looked at the only outstanding feature of the collar- a gem set in a circle of weathered bronze. He frowned, his hand oddly cold as he felt its smooth surface. The aura from the stone was disturbing. "Come- we will cut it off."

Manny reverse spun his buckle and followed Rodolfo to the kitchen in his night clothes. His father was digging through the drawers in search of scissors. Manny leaned against the counter, staring into some invisible, distant disaster. How did he not sense someone in his house? His room? How did he not feel someone touch his own throat? Manny shuddered at the thought.

Maybe he wasn't cut out for this. Maybe he needed to give his belt back. Manny looked at it and tried to imagine not having it. In his mind, it defined him. He was El Tigre, he was the son in a line of super heroes and villains, and the buckle was his future. He had always embraced it. The gleam on the metal buckle now seemed cold and unfriendly.

Rodolfo turned around with the scissors in hand, relief spelled on his face. "Here, now we can-"

Manny gasped and fell to his knees, scrabbling at the collar. It was suddenly tight, choking him, and he rasped through black spots swimming in his vision, "_Dad!_"

Fury and fear seized Rodolfo and he dropped the scissors, grabbing Manny as the boy's limbs buckled, crying out, "I won't! I won't remove it! Stop, stop! Just let him breathe!" The collar held for a heartbeat longer, Manny's lips tingeing blue, then released, and he jackknifed, gasping in huge, sucking breaths. Tears escaped Rodolfo's eyes as his son lay over his lap, eyes closed, slowly recovering.

"Manny… " he said softly, utter grief in his voice. He couldn't do anything for his son and nothing could absolve this crime. He had to find the owner of this horrid device, and make him pay.

A black fog was dispersing in Manny's vision and a drop of water startled him awake. Who was this that held him? They felt familiar, but they were crying. Why was he crying? Was _his dad _crying?

"Dad?" Manny rasped and he felt the pressure of the collar against his throat change with ever the slightest fluctuations- like a living thing. A parasite. "Guess it's… not comin' off, eh?"


	2. Falling Apart

**WARNING: Descriptive blood scene (not manny's blood! at least, not too much.) Also, sorry guys, I wanted to post on Friday (I hope this'll be the ONLY story I update every week. I almost did it!) but I'm super lazy AND super busy so I _really _didn't have time to write this! Okay, sorry for ranting. Enjoy and review, por favor! ;3**

**SHAMELESS PROMO: fadedflight. SPACE deviantart SPACE .com/art/Tiger-Collars-119080278 (but remove the ' SPACE 's first! ;3)**

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Chapter One: Falling Apart

"Whoa dude, that's creepy." Frida ran a finger over the stone in the collar and squinted. "Hey, if you get this off I bet we can sell it!"

Manny pushed her back and huffed. "Frida, this is serious! I almost died."

"Pssh, you always almost die- you're a super villain!" Manny glared. "And hero." But Frida's brow wrinkled for a moment. Under the collar was a black and purple ring, and Manny had shadows under his eyes. That was unsettling- he was not one to miss sleep for any reason.

Unless he was having nightmares.

"Well, it's just-" Manny began uncomfortably, when the rumble of running masses rippled through the sidewalk. A flash of fire lit up in his eyes as a monster's howl echoed from the far side of town. He gave a grim smile. "Finally. I've been wanting to use my claws since that rat got away!"

Frida recoiled as Manny went up in vicious green fire with a roar and sprinted off. She stared in shock. Her arm- it was burned. But that was ridiculous! She'd been near him a thousand times when he had changed- she'd even used the belt before and it hadn't been that hot, just an invigorating warmth. Something was wrong. A sense of dread tightened in Frida's gut.

Very wrong.

She fought the urge to follow Manny to battle as she normally did, to see him in action with flawless, feline grace. Instead, she ran in the other direction- to where Rodolfo worked. He would know what to do. White Pantera would know.

It was as Rodolfo was leaving the office building that Frida nearly tackled him. She had worked herself into a fit, breathing hard from the run. "Manny- he- the collar- the fire- burned- see?!" She held out her arms and Rodolfo's eyes widened at the angry-red, damaged flesh. "He- I don't know! He- you- you need to go find him! Over there!" She pointed towards the fight where distant screams echoed.

Rodolfo's eyes narrowed, and he picked up Frida as easily as his briefcase. With a flash, he tore off towards the fight in his White Pantera suit- but not nearly as fast as Manny had gone.

Manny dashed across the rooftops and spotted them- a pair of banditos with some grossly over-muscled coyotes, chasing people down the streets. Manny felt a flush of aggression and wondered if this crimson light in his vision was real- was he actually seeing red? Was he actually pouncing on this mindless dog and ripping it apart? Was he actually turning from the ruined remains and grinning at the terrified men?

"Manny! _Manny!!_"

Writhing in the hands that held him, Manny snarled a wordless snarl, reverberating from his chest with shocking volume. They were in an alley and the two men were cowering behind the dumpster, blood pouring from their wounds. Far on the other side of the street, a small crowd of onlookers gaped in horror.

A hand slapped him across the face and a feminine voice sliced into his thoughts. "You idiot! Would you just calm down?!" Manny grew still, his chest heaving. "You're outta control! Do you want to kill these guys, like you killed their poor dogs?" The voice quavered.

"F-Frida?" Manny's vision expanded from the tunnel that lead to the banditos. A pair of familiar black gloves held him painfully tight. Those hands were trembling.

Frida seeped back into his sight. "Manny," she said slowly, "Manny, do you understand me?"

His throat under the stone burned. "Y-yes, I understand." He looked at the gloves again and realized whose they were. "Dad?"

Face creased with pain, Rodolfo nodded but didn't loosen his grip. "Yes, Manny, it is I."

Manny's voice began to shake. "How long- how long have I been fighting?"

"For just over ten minutes. Son, what were you thinking?" Rodolfo's hands slipped off his arms and they ached where he had gripped him. "Were you thinking? Could you think?"

The burning of tears pulled at Manny's throat and eyes. "I-I- no, I wasn't. I couldn't. I just got so mad, I-" He choked and looked at his hands. Blood and dark red stuff rested there. Manny ripped away and retched by the building wall. Hanging there limply, he said, "Oh, oh god. I almost killed them. I almost- I almost-"

Rodolfo wrapped his arms around Manny and the boy allowed himself to take refuge in his father's powerful shadow and warmth. Frida's hand on his shoulder was gentle and spoke a million comforting words with complete silence.

They slowly left the warm, shadowed alley. A few cop cars had pulled up and Chief Emiliano was there, his officers dispersing the crowd. His eyes were grim as he approached them, stepping without notice through the coyote remains.

"Frida, I refuse to let you-"

"Dad, just shut up!" Frida's eyes burned and her father stepped back, speechless. "Not now, Dad. Not now."

Manny wasn't listening to the tense conversation between his best friend and her father. He couldn't stop staring at the dead dogs strewn grotesquely in the road. Blood sat in fetid pools, their snarling heads staring sightlessly at him.

He remembered killing them- the blood spraying and drying on his face and hands, the whimpers and yelps as they tried to escape. The taut, bloodthirsty grin on his face when he dragged them back and slaughtered them. He remembered it vividly, their deaths, and the fun it was as he did it

"Oh my god," Manny said, the collar ominously still on his throat. "I'm a monster. I'm becoming a monster." He slipped his fingers under the collar and pulled. It yielded as a chain would- flexible, but unbreakable. He stopped walking, frantically grabbing the device and setting his Tigre strength against it, falling to his knees in the blood and carnage. Rodolfo tried to pull the boy's hands away but now Manny was hyperventilating.

"Get it off, get it off, get it off!" The collar didn't tighten or loosen- lifeless, as if drained from the short bout of power it had had over him. Manny wasn't aware of the tears on his face or that he had clawed his own neck in his frantic scrabbling.

"Manny!" Rodolfo barked once he had restrained the boy once more. "Manny, calm down." He reverse spun the buckle as Manny stared down unseeingly. The flash of green fire seared Rodolfo's hands terribly but he ignored it. "Manny, it is okay! It is okay, I won't let you hurt anyone." Manny heard him distantly, and wondered in despair if he really could.

Shaking in exhaustion, Manny let Rodolfo carry him. Frida walked beside them, sniffling quietly. Manny was murmuring, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." For making Frida cry. For making his dad sick with worry. For burning them both with green fire.

His hands still dark with the blood, Manny fell into fitful sleep, the collar slowly regaining energy from some dark, distant source.

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**Oh no! Manny's going crazy! :O I will update on this coming saturday (4.25.09) Hold me to it! and throw rotten fruit if I don't ;3**

**HOWEVER, if I get SEVEN/7 ****more ****reviews (TEN/10 total) before saturday, I will update that day! This I swear!**

**EDIT: Hey guys, I know I said I'd update when I got 10 reviews but I'm really freakin sick right now and shouldn't be outta bed- which includes computer TT^TT Sorry, but seriously, I'm really miserable right now. My throat doesn't hurt- I don't have a throat. I have raw flesh. Someone must've went in with a cheese-grater-ice cream-scoop. I'll work on it in bed and see if I can get it up tomorow! *bows* Forgive me, dear readers!  
**


	3. Indoctrination

**Guess who has a legit excuse for not updating when they promised? I DO!! I've been extremely sick for the past week, and have no energy, awful pressure headaches and turrr-ible stomach pain from antibiotics. Last night, when it was still Saturday, I sat down all feverish and ill and was like, "For the readers, I must WRITE!" and then I like, passed out. So I wrote this this morning! Yay! Here you go, my beloveds. Enjoy the bloodstains of my illness all over the page- I better get some reviews for this!- please? ;3**

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Chapter Two: Indoctrination

A darkness darker than black slipped against the night, and Manny followed it with his eyes. He felt a heaviness in his limbs as he trailed it. The buildings were a unfamiliar blur. Sweat clung to his skin and he snarled in annoyance, wiping his neck with a clawed hand. The grime and dirt he was collecting from the slum and every flash or noise seemed to pull on his thoughts, away from his task- following this shadow.

"_Rahhh_!" Manny shot up from his bed, reaching out with his fingers curled. The blankets were bunched at his feet and his face was damp with sweat. The collar pulsed at his throat. He'd wanted to attack- while he still had the chance. There had been a distinct sense of time running down in that dream. He growled, and leapt out of bed.

His finger tips burned. Manny climbed out onto the roof and let a night breeze cool him off, the stars glinting coldly overhead. He clenched and unclenched his fists. They burned, and the burning went up and down his arms, through his chest and outward to the ends of his limbs.

It was blinding. It was intoxicating. He trembled with a fiercely gleeful energy and a sliver of terror imbedded itself in his brain. His face grew taut with that bloodthirsty grin- "No, no, no-no-no." Was it his voice saying this frantic mantra?- and then he was swept up in green fire and time was lost.

"Frida! _Frida!_"

Frida mumbled and turned on her bedside lamp, her gut immediately lurching in fear. "Manny? Are you okay?"

"Am I ok?" Manny asked rhetorically in disbelief, a smile burning on his face as he climbed in the window. "I'm great! I'm fantastic!!" His eyes burned, too, two points of green light. "Look, I just couldn't _control _it before. Now I know what to do." He slipped towards Frida as he spoke and Frida gulped- there was blood on his hands. "Now I know how to use it."

"Manny, I'm calling your dad-" Manny grabbed her wrist _almost _painfully, stopping her from reaching the phone, and then there was a moment of tension. Frida didn't dare to breathe.

His hand trembled. Blood was smeared on her pale arm. The burning light flickered.

"F-Frida?" Manny's voice trembled.

"Yes, Manny?"

"I-is that your blood?"

Frida peeled his hand away and held it in her own. "No. No, Manny, it's not. But it could've been. Manny, you need to-" Her voice failed her, fear in her eyes. "Manny, you need to keep a grip on your mind. You're not an animal, you're a human. You're my best friend."

The collar began to quiver at his throat. Manny suddenly became aware of the malevolence there- the hate, and the anger. All those barbed feelings that had been growing in his chest. Manny released her hand immediately and stumbled back. A desperate light played on his features, a impossible mixture of terror and ecstasy, like oil and water. He crouched at the wall, nails digging scores into the paint.

"I-I don't know, Frida. I don't know if the hate and power is me, or if the fear and the good is me. What if I'd never been good in the first place?" Manny gave her a frantic look. "What if this collar is the real me?" That green light began to grow.

"Manny! You are good! I promise! Remember when stole that dog for ransom and you gave it back-"

"Yeah… "

"And when you-you gave up Zoe for- me? Cuz you knew it was hurting me?" Frida's voice was taut with pain. "Manny, you're good, I know it. You know it."

_See, Manny? You're good. You are good… _A curl of tentative hope rose in Manny.

Manny leapt to his feet. A snarl resonated from his chest and that green light flared. Frida cried out in dismay, fighting between pulling away and reaching out, but Manny's eyes were no longer simply green- they were panels of emerald fire. The stone in the collar was a orange glow under his chin and Frida could see thin, black burn marks on his skin.

"Manny! _Manny_!!" But he growled through pointed teeth and dashed out the window. Frida stared after him for a heartbeat then grabbed the phone.

"Hey- Yeah, Manny, he- I don't know, he just left." She looked back to the window. "Yes, I'm fine!" Her eyes were a dark shade of blue, darker than she'd ever wanted to believe they could be. "I-I don't know where he's going."

The buildings were an unfamiliar blur- downtown, where darkness lurked in every corner. Manny didn't usually frequent here. His father did- as White Pantera, sending muggers and thieves to jail. Manny dashed down the narrow sidewalk, the collar pulling him along.

"Manuel… "

In a distant, detached corner of his mind, Manny knew this was wrong. Something was very wrong. Why wouldn't his limbs obey him? Why was the copper scent of blood so invigorating?

Manny, arms resisting the whole way, brought his hands the collar and dug his claws in. His thoughts were far away, jumbled, jolting along a lightless path, but he knew that this collar burned with power and hate and that he had to get it off. As he staggered down the sidewalk, stumbling into a building wall, he began to rip through the fibers of the collar, one by one-

"Manuel." There was a cold smile in that voice.

The collar trembled in fury and burned scorching hot, re-lacing the bits together, growing from within, pushing the claws out. Manny yelped in pain, shaking and fell into an alley. He was sweating, delirious. Why was he so happy? Why was he burning up? What was this blinding energy filling him to the brim, threatening to spill his mind over into nothing?

A dark voice chuckled, amused. Pleased. "Manuel, Manuel, Manuel." A hand rested on his head. Heat emanated from his body like a patient with a terrible fever, the kind that destroyed brain tissue.

"Don't fight me. I'm your friend." Manny looked up.

A shifting, shadowy figure towered over him, miles high it seemed. His vision flickered in and out. The collar seemed to recognize its true master and the hate and anger that resonated between them blew Manny away.

"Y-you're not… my friend," Manny managed to say, glaring up through clouded eyes. The figure smiled grotesquely, revealing two perfect rows of pointed teeth, and pinched Manny's tiger ear with his nails. Manny jerked in surprised pain and tried to pull away, only to find he couldn't move. "L-Lemme go!"

The shadow-shrouded figure drew Manny to his feet effortlessly, his bones and muscles and tendons obeying a new mind. The only thing left to Manny seemed to be a bare minimum of neuron synapses to create his own thoughts.

"You will obey me. I've created you anew in fire! I resurrected this old relic-" He touched the collar and it quivered- "and traced the Rivera line down. The tiger eye- this stone here- It's perfect for you, don't you think? You owe this strength, this initiative, this freedom- to me!"

The black hole in the figure's hood showed no eyes, no features, nothing but that glowingly white line of teeth. Manny felt those last synapses, those last thoughts of his own, being consumed by the shadow. He seemed to not understand the concept of fighting anymore. The word rebellion lost meaning.

There was a tiny, detached part of Manny's mind untouched. A tiny corner of absolute truth where the mind of his innermost thoughts existed. It had no power over his body in the first place, no say in the actions of his physical self.

It was the birthplace of morals and fears and loves and hopes and doubts. Manny didn't know it existed, but neither did this shadow creature. This tiny corner simply watched from far away, wondering distantly who he was now. Because he certainly wasn't Manny.

Manny Rivera, El Tigre, friend, son, hero, villain, child, individual- ceased to be. He was nothing, and in that dark night, he followed the shadow with a empty, black stare in his eyes. The shadow had taken him.

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**Bum-bum-BAH! Oh noes, what will happen to Manny? Is he really going to kill Frida? Is he really going to then kill himself? -Gasp- But you can't do that, he's the main character and we love him! Well, maybe I'm just that devilish. *evil grin* Or maybe not. You'll never know unless you review!- Uh, I mean read! lol.**

**Okay here's the deal: 10/ten more reviews (20/twenty total) and I will update that day! Illness or not! THIS I SWEAR! If you all don't, then I'll just update this coming Sunday (I don't think Saturday's really working for me... ) 5.3.09. Hold me to it! _Please_!  
**


	4. Abducted

**I really don't ave any excuse for not updating. For some odd reason, I thought that once summer started that these things would just start writing themselves. Sorry. Now as for my next update- that depends totally on the response I get from YOU- yes, YOU. If you want another chapter, tell. me If you don't, then don't bother cuz then I can just let this story go. Sometimes they just gotta be let go, you know? Well enjoy, my dears. ;3**

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Chapter Three: Abducted

"You're little friend…" Manny listened to the voice and felt hardly any stirring of emotion at it.

"Hmm? You mean Frida?" Manny felt distracted and tired.

"Yes, the little blue-haired girl. She is quite gifted, is she not?"

"Oh, very gifted. She's the best… " Why did he say that? Somehow he knew this Frida _was _the very best- the best friend he could have ever wanted. An unquestionable shudder twisted through him though, forcing his attention back to the speaker.

"Her music. It's powerful- like your tiger abilities." There was a hungry edge in the voice. Manny felt slightly perturbed at this. Was this a shadow, an echo of his protective feelings for Frida? Manny couldn't tell and this shadow didn't want him dwelling on the idea. "I would like her to join us here. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Manny could barely force that empty smile onto his face. "Yes, of course," he replied hollowly, since it was what his shadowy puppeteer wanted him to say. The shadow grinned, its white, pointed teeth simply glowing.

"Then she'll just have to join us."

Somewhere else in the night, the young woman in question was pacing her best friend's living room. She paused every few moments to stare at the door and will a beaming Rodolfo and a guilty, but safe, Manny to walk in, but it never happened. Half an hour after she sat down, the door opened with a subdued creak, revealing the sharp outline of White Pantera. Frida leapt up but he just stared at her with a pained expression and the hope drained out of her.

"Frida," he said, a tension in his tone stopping her. "A man gave me this while I was searching. He was gone before I could demand an explanation." He reluctantly passed a gilded envelope into her hands, its delicate flap ripped open. She pulled out the half-page note, which read in dark red ink:

"_Dearest Frida, _

_Me and your friend Manuel have become well acquainted, and he proposed an excellent idea. We would find most enjoyable if you would visit us. I have an exquisite pair of headphones that would fit you perfectly._

_Please come to my humble abode at the edge of town tomorrow at sunset. Walk right in- 1289 Ritewen's Way._

_Sincerely, Mr. Gray_."

Frida dropped the letter onto the coffee table, where upon it joined a friendly looking pile of household mess- junk mail, yesterday's newspaper and old mugs from the past week. The letter stuck out from the comfortable, comonplace items though, as if it were on fire. As if it were composed of pure acid.

Rodolfo soon spoke, seeing the resolution forming in Frida's figure. "There is absolutely no way that I will allow you to go to this- this madman's house. He could kill you- or worse-"

Frida slammed her fist onto the table, making both the cups and Rodolfo jump. "No offense, Mr. Rivera, but quite frankly there's no way in hell that you could stop me. And if you don't help me, I'll go alone. Now, you can help me save your son, or you can get a hold of my dad so he can lock me up in my room and I can slip out and go by myself." Frida held his gaze fearlessly. He had never been so tempted to look away. "What do you say?"

Silence stretched between them as the father stood very still, not quite looking at his son's best friend, a slow sigh blooming in his lungs. He eventually walked over to Frida and sat on the couch while she stood, so that they saw each other at eye level.

"Frida," he said and immediately, there was a guilt response in her at the fatherly tone. "Frida, you are like a daughter to me. If anything were to ever happen to you.. with Manny in such danger now as it is… I think, miha, that it would kill me."

Some of the resolution steeling in her blood seeped out. Frida took the hand that he had rested on her shoulder and returned his heartfelt gaze. "Manny is my best friend and I know it sounds weird, but I love him. You know, 'cause he's my friend. I'd do anything for him. And you are his father, someone he loves and looks up to. And dude, I gotta look up to you too. If I were one of the good guys, I'd wanna be like you."

Frida eyes then changed, from that open warmth to the assertive heat that empowered her every movement. "But this is my challenge. My duty. If you honestly don't think I can do this, stop me, but I will fight to the death for Manny. Even if that means fighting you. So you could make me give this up, but together, you and me and Ms. Rivera with her glove and Manny's Grandpapi… I think we could smash this guy."

Rodolfo resisted her challenging eyes, eyes that told him to just try something to stop her, then realized- she was right. This was her challenge, her honor, her friend she was fighting for. And if he knew anything about love- Maria came to mind- it was something he would fight to the bitter end for. He stood up and offered a hand of agreement to Frida. She considered the offer, almost expecting a trick, then shook it.

Rodolfo smiled a confident smile, feeling some fiery hope for the first time in the past day. He patted Frida on the head and guided her towards Manny's room. "Go to bed, Frida. I will call Maria and Papi and tell them what has happened, and what our paln is."

He watched the girl fall take refuge as easily in Manny's room as if it were her own then returned to the living room. For the first time in many years, he poured a very small cup of liquor but indulged in no more.

He had work to do.


	5. Frontal Collision

**Hello out there! I updated! WHOO! There's an end in sight! Please read and review!:D**

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**Chapter Four: Frontal Collision**

Frida stood at the end of the long driveway. The house she hovered at the foot of was a powerful, imposing shape from an era long passed. It had lost its vital force, sagging almost imperceptibly inwards over time without a proper staff to keep all its surfaces and structures well serviced. But it gave an imposing air, from its black outline to its gnarled, leafless trees. Frida shuddered in the hot, clingy air. Somewhere in there, a madman held her friend hostage.

A footstep behind her made her start. It was Rodolfo decked in his immaculate white suit, the gold and red mask the only point of brilliant color in the drab stretch of land. There was no other occupied building in a half mile radius.

"Are you ready, miha?" He straightened his collar almost ridiculously, as if about to enter a interview, but Frida did not doubt his resolution. He was a force to be reckoned with; a ferocious glint dominated his eyes.

Her hands clenched into small fists, her eyes in hardened slits. "Yes."

"Papi?" Rodolfo asked, turning to the older man, and, as he asked, Jorge reverted to his Puma Loco mecha. He tested his range of movement, a last check on everything's functioning order, then gave a grunt of conformation.

"Jes, I am ready." His mechanical claws clicked their digits suddenly. "This Mr. Gray will not live another day with my grandson under his claws."

They ascended the sloping drive with Frida leading them and came to the pale door. It was open. As they stepped through the threshold, however, Rodolfo stumbled and Jorge croaked in pain. Frida whirled around, brow knitted in concern, as the two keeled over.

"What's wrong?" she pressed as she kneeled before them. Rodolfo looked up, and she recoiled from his fire-bright eyes.

He could barely rasp out an answer, muscles taut as he seemed to struggle in restraining himself. "The… collar. Its power is… great." His eyes were filled with despair. "I… cannot go on."

Frida looked between them in horror. "You- but- why? Is it influencing you?"

The gears in Jorge's mecha groaned at its master's indecision, the broad foot of the suit taking one painful step back. "I am sorry, Frida. That-that stone must draw all Riveras to it." Even as he said it, he stared down the long hallway before them with a combination of fear and longing, then cast his gaze back out the door. "We must get out, Rodolfo."

Rodolfo got to his feet, shaking. "Come, Frida, we must approach this matter from another angle."

As they began to drag themselves out, Frida's heart was tearing at their obvious pain, Rodolfo's face pale and Jorge's breath short, but she did not move.

"Then I will go alone."

They turned to her at once with wide eyes, shock momentarily distracting them from the collar's call. She stood there defiantly with her shoulders back and chin up.

"But, Frida-!" Rodolfo cried out. His head was swimming in effort, and he could not remain there much longer without being tempted to go towards the siren song of the stone.

"No, you guys leave. I'll get to Manny and convince him to leave," she insisted, pushing them in the direction of the door. "He'll listen to me." With their attentions consumed by merely resisting, Frida had shoved them out of the door before they could protest. They stumbled out, and Frida turned to hurry away into the reaching shadows of the house.

"Frida!" Rodolfo cried out as soon as he was released from the collar's influence. He whirled around to stare into the house. She didn't turn to listen.

"Little girl-!" Jorge said nearly at the same, voice burning with sharp reprimand, but she kept running.

"Just-just be careful!" Rodolfo said weakly. He grasped the doorframe, legs weak from the effort he had just endured.

With the elder Riveras behind her, Frida turned a corner and slowed to cautious walk. She blinked hard to see through the inky darkness, the only sound in the air her own quick breathing. Where was there to go? All was silence and darkness, but Manny had to be there somewhere in there ,or else the collar would not have influenced Rodolfo and Jorge. Also, she fully expected the man who had taken him to be watching from somewhere, having invited her onto the property.

Then, as she tiptoed ahead, Frida caught the traces of a distant sound. She stopped and concentrated on it, almost appearing to be music coming from above. Pressed by the impetus of mounting panic, Frida searched for a set of stairs and climbed up it immediately upon finding it. Down the hall, there was an open door with light and sound spilling from it. She braced herself and peaked around the edge.

It was a huge, comfortable bedroom with furnishing to please any teenager. Video games, an expensive-looking entertainment system, a pinball machine, a churro-maker- all around the massive bed that was obviously the centerpiece. Lounging at the heart of the massive structure, motionless except for a slowly-twitching tail, was the relaxed form of El Tigre. Frida froze, heart seizing at the sight with a thousand unutterable emotions.

His eyes snapped open, a vibrant green, and a grin split his face. Manny leapt from the covers and seemingly appeared before Frida having run so fast. The speed was blinding and Frida's heart sank at the prospects of running away in the case of things going badly.

"Frida!" he purred. He wrapped his arms around her in loving embrace. Frida was shaken. He seemed to glow with real affection, real excitement. But if these were real emotions, why was he still here, still keeping himself under the evil man's thumb? Her eyes narrowed indiscernibly. This must be a hoax, a show to lull her into false security.

She flashed a big smile. "Manny! Are you all right? What are you doing?"

Manny's grin faltered. "I'm-I'm here with my friend." The smile became huge and empty again, but Frida was deeply heartened by the momentary slip in the façade. "We're staying here, together. He gives me everything I want." He waved a clawed hand around in a slow arc. Frida, despite it all, felt a small jealous surge. Those were some nice things, things she did not have. Even if the temptation was insignificantly small, it was there.

"And I have a gift for you!" Manny said, bright eyed with that overzealous, green light. He flashed to the other side of the room and returned to her with a box in hand in a heartbeat. It was a simple, cardboard box, with no markings or even tape. Frida's name was scrawled across the side in a unfortunately familiar handwriting.

Frida's heart thudded. She felt a tug beneath her ribs towards this box, as if an inexplicable force were drawing her in by the heart. It practically pulsed with energy. Manny held it out to her, and her hands took it on their own accord.

"Oh, no," she whispered as she watched her own fingers pry the flaps apart. Inside, shining with almost-white silver and blue sapphire studs were a set a gorgeous headphones. They were emblazoned with small designs-music notes, words in lyric-like stanzas, symbols reminiscent of money. Its aura was burning hot and cold simultaneously and every fiber of her body itched, begged, to hold it and keep it forever.

She understood now why the Riveras had to stay out. If this was the unbearable ache of not having that object of power, than they were indeed in trouble. Her fingers trembled, reaching gratingly slow towards the sleek curve of the device. They had no cord or jack, belying it of usefulness, singing of its deceptiveness, but she could not resist, she could not-

"No!" Frida flung the object away, even as it stabbed her heart in doing so. The headphones seemed to pull on her with a vengeance in the wake of being rejected. Frida clasped over her heart with a hand whose fingers curved into desperate claws. "Manny," she gasped, falling to her knees. Manny's eyes alit with concern, mouth open to speak. "Manny, you- have to- break free. Please." She could say no more, only focus on resisting, on slowly getting up and stumbling back.

Manny's face twitched in the competing emotions, the false happiness and the true despair. His clawed hands gripped the sides of his head as he rasped, "F-Frida. I-I… can't." His voice died to a whisper. "Please… leave. While you still have the choice."

His words were bitter and pleading, the effort of defying his master physically taking its toll. All his muscles trembled, and his nose had begun to bleed. Somewhere far away, an aura of palpable rage was approaching. Manny's eyes grew sharp in recognition. He shoved Frida back towards the door.

"_Go!_" he roared. Frida staggered away, unable to think or breath, a sob constricting her throat.

"Manny," Frida said one last time, then turned away. She had to leave or else be lost forever in vain.

She tore down the stairs and out the front door, her heart being reigned in by the headphones the entire way. They enacted their own special torture, becoming more and more painful as the distance between them and her increased. Only as she passed the threshold did she break free, gasping in the air as if there had been no oxygen in the house.

Rodolfo and Jorge hurried to catch her as she stumbled, but she motioned to go furiously as the words themselves struggled out. "Go, go, we can't take this alone. We have to-"

A roaring explosion blew them off the porch and into the grass-bare yard. They landed hard, gritting their teeth. Frida pushed herself off the ground and looked up at the house. Its front door and surrounding wall had been destroyed by the force. Manny stood before the gaping hole, his eyes once again slates of green fire, completely lost to reality.

"You have disgraced my master by rejecting his gift," he intoned in voice sounding completely his own. "For that, you must pay."

* * *

**So there. Tell me what you think and I will dutifully update! Thank you, my darlings!**


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